Usable Online Helps

[aurelien_berthelot]

Hi
"New great feature in this version, Helps are online and constantly updated"
Waouh, Cool, Awesone, Terrific !

...but not reachable 😞

I know that helps can be download and install locally, but by default Autodesk products come now with online helps which is supposed to be the best setting.
So, please Autodesk, buy a bunch a new servers and offers a real online service to your customers.

[Edit: I'm based in France, USA based users may not experience the same behaviors]

thanks you

[cwhetten]

I agree.  Whenever one of my users asks me a simple question that they could answer themselves by looking in the help documentation, I used to just say "have you looked in the help documentation?"  Now I have a hard time saying this.

I struggle to recommend someone to look in the help documentation--not because the content is poor (it's really quite good as far as software documentation goes), but because it is SO MISERABLY SLOW!  I hate going there myself because I know it's going to be an excruciating experience, so how can I, in good conscience, subject someone else to the same pain?

I think the wiki system has some great potential, but the grinding sluggishness of the system and the grating frustration of trying to use it is going to kill the whole thing.

[Edit:  I am in the US--Salt Lake City, Utah to be more precise]

Cameron Whetten
Inventor 2012

[aurelien_berthelot]

So it sounds like a word wild issue

not very glorious for a world wild class company...

[mrattray]

Let's just include offline help with the installation and add an application option to set online/offline.

[cwhetten]

I agree, Mike.  I think the online help is just fine, but the access needs to be brought up to 21st century standards.  Whenever I use it I get flashbacks to 1990's dial-up.

But you're right.  The offline help needs to be readily available in case the online help goes down or you know you will not have internet access.

So perhaps there are two closely related suggestions/ideas here:

1.  Improve the online system so that it is easily accessible and practically usable.

2.  Put the offline help back into the standard installation and provide an application option to set which help type will be used.

[aurelien_berthelot]

Mike, Cameron

I like your suggestions

(I want to edit my first post in order to highlight these thing, but this seems not possible when somebody has gived a comment - if you know how...)

Back to the subject of this post:

to complete your suggestion of both access to online/offline helps, we can also imagine a system of local cache for online helps:

• online helps could be saved locally
• local "online help" is judiciously completed by offline help
• a notification pops up during consultation of local "online help" when update are available on Autodesk servers

I'm pretty certain that a specific help page is not updated weekly, even montly 

[Mark_Wigan]

the online help also has issues behind some corporate firewalls if they use a third party / microsoft url advisor that does not like websites without a valid certificate etc. (cannot setup a rule to bypass the rule if site has no certificate).

we had to get all users to set local help as default and show them where to browse manually for online / wiki help, set them up with shortcuts etc.

we had to spend time with the it dept to setup special rules for autodesk help to be accessible for the users, and it was quite dissapointing to have such a drama for "help" access.

[Dave_SSDD9000]

I've found the Wiki help to be slow and difficult to navigate. There is good content there, but it's tough to find what you need most times, and easy to get lost while hunting for something useful. For the most part I have given up on Wiki help, and rely on forums, user groups, and blogs to answer most of my questions. I miss the days when a complex software package came delivered with an equally comprehensive documentation package.

[karthur1]

I install the offline help with each deployment.  The offline help is supposed to be used when the online help is "Unavailable". Sometimes, its available... but just really slow.  I would like to be able to always use the offline help, but then have the option to go online.

[mrattray]

You can setup Inventor to default to offline help, and if you bookmark the webpage for the online help then you'll still have it available.

Here's a blog from Curtis Waguespack that tells how: http://inventortrenches.blogspot.com/2011/04/where-are-inventor-2012-tutorial-and.html

[jdkriek]

Im in the US - Texas and I've never been able to pull up the new online help